Freddy Roach Confident; Bob Arum Praises Manny Pacqiao's 'Religious Awakening'

Earlier this afternoon, I participated in a media phone call with Manny Pacquiao, Bob Arum and Freddy Roach. For about 40 minutes, the trio discussed, among other things, Pacman's upcoming clash with Timothy Bradley, his hard-fought battle last November with Juan Manuel Marquez and what Arum termed his "religious awakening."

Call host Fred Sternberg's introductory remarks noted that Pacquiao was now in his third week of training at Wild Card and that sessions were averaging eight to 10 rounds of sparring and 12 rounds on the mitts.

Freddy Roach echoed that Pacquiao's current training camp has been extremely productive, both the first three weeks in the Philippines and the past three weeks in L.A. "Manny's focus is the best I've ever seen," Roach stated.

The highly regarded trainer also noted that he "sees a lot of holes in Bradley's defense that Manny will take advantage of."

Now, I am pretty certain Freddy Roach has claimed that every training camp Manny's had in recent years has been "the best one yet." I know I heard him say it at some point prior to the last Marquez fight, and he also predicted a knockout.

But in fairness, it's not like any highly successful, elite-caliber coach or trainer ever gave an interview about how he expected his guy to go out and blow it.  

And Roach did sound legitimately confident today. He acknowledged that Bradley was a somewhat different challenge than anybody he and Pacquiao have face so far, but stated he felt Pacquiao had advantages in "experience, speed and power."

Roach indicated that he expected Bradley to come forward looking to fight, but that he had a variety of sparring partners working with Pacquiao and would have his fighter ready for any eventualities: "Manny will be ready for a slugger or a boxer."

ESPN's Dan Rafael asked Pacquiao about the Marquez fight last November, inquiring if there had been any mental distractions that could account for why he did not do as well as had been expected. 

Pacquiao responded that he had been dealing with a "family problem" right before the fight: "Physically, I was good, but mentally, I had a problem."

Roach conceded "Marquez will always give you problems because he's a great boxer," adding "training camp went great, and then, the last week it all fell apart. Manny had personal problems around him that have been taken care of." 

The nature of Pacquiao's "personal problems" were not divulged. However, Roach noted that in this camp Pacquiao has had "No distractions. No night life. Just going to Bible study."

Arum was practically effusive in talking about Pacquiao's religious activity. "The difference in Manny's face is notable. He's not as tired or weary." Arum referred to Pacman having a "religious awakening" multiple times during the call.

The Bible study topic seemed extremely close to Arum's heart, as he returned to it in his closing remarks, informing the press that he planned to film Manny's Bible study sessions and produce a video about it.

Personally, I thought being really religious was already kind of Manny's thing.

But if reading the Bible and praying at night instead of singing karaoke with the crew means he puts in better sessions in the gym, then clearly it's a good thing.